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still hungry after all these years

The happy of food

We have sort of started getting ready for Thanksgiving, which surpasses even my birthday as the absolute best holiday of the year. Megan and Nate bring the grandkids, my ex-wife comes over and this year Dee’s mom is coming from Indiana. I usually work Thanksgiving. Megan, Nate et al have Turkey Day with the Ryans on Thursday … so our festive meal is at our house on Saturday.

Not that you care about all that — but this post on Jew and The Carrot about the importance of food to happiness really got me.

It’s about vegetarianism and the Talmud, specifically this quote: “There is no simcha without meat and wine.”

Simcha is …

Joy.

I understand the sense of the post, that we are not to be ascetic, not to be shrunken souls, but to drink in the fullness of life. And I also understand that what pleasure people find in turning a bag of groceries into a meal is unbounded, it is without limits, and in holiday celebration it is proof if we need proof that we are stardust.